For all which treasons and crimes this court doth adjudge The sentence that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation, shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body. The warrant for the execution of the king was issued two days after the announcement of his conviction, and appointed his death for the next day. Charles I Whereas Charles Stuart, king of England, is and standeth 297. Death convicted, attainted, and condemned of high treason and other Warrant of crimes; and sentence upon Saturday last was pronounced January against him by this court, to be put to death by the severing 29, 1649) of his head from his body; of which sentence execution yet remaineth to be done; these are therefore to will and require you to see the said sentence executed in the open street before Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the thirtieth day of this instant month of January, between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon of the same day, with full effect. And for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. And these are to require all officers, soldiers, and others, the good people of this nation of England, to be assisting unto you in this service. To Col. Francis Hacker, Col. Huncks, and Lieut.-Col. Phayre, and to every of them. Given under our hands and seals JOHN BRADSHAW. THOMAS GREY. OLIVER CROMWELL, etc. The dignified bearing of the king during the short time between his sentence and his execution is shown by the following account of his last night. The king's deportment was very majestick and steady; and 298. An ac'tho' his tongue usually hesitated, yet it was very free at this count of the king's time, for he was never discomposed in mind. And yet as he last night confest himself to the bishop of London that attended him 299. The execution of the king one action shockt him very much; for whilst he was leaning in the court upon his staff, which had an head of gold, the head broke off on a sudden. He took it up, but seemed unconcerned; yet told the bishop, it really made a great impression upon him, and to this hour (sayes he) I know not possibly how it should come. 'T was an accident, I confess, I myselfe have often thought on, and cannot imagine how it came about unless Hugh Peters (who was truly and really his gaoler, for at St. James' nobody went to him but by Peters' leave) had artificially tampered upon his staff; but such conjectures are of no use. . . He required Mr. Herbert (a gentleman who was appointed to attend him, and who had bin very civill to him and whom he recommended likewise to the present king) to call him at four of the clock in the morning; and Mr. Herbert slept little himselfe, lying by him on a pallet-bed; but observed through the whole night that the king slept very soundly, and at his hour awak'd himself and drew his curtain. He soon got up, was about an hour at his own private devotions, and then called to be drest; and Mr. Herbert, who was wont to comb his hair, combed it that morning with less care than usually : "Prethee (says he) tho' it be not long to stand on my shoulders, take the same paines with it you were wont to do: I am to be a bridegroom to-day and must be trimm." His behavior when he came to the scaffold was no less simple and dignified. Then the king called to Dr. Juxon for his nightcap, and having put it on, he said to the executioner, "Does my hair trouble you?" He desired it might all be put under the cap, which the king did accordingly, by the help of the executioner and the bishop. Then the king turning to Dr. Juxon said, “I have a good cause and a gracious God on my side." Dr. Juxon. There is but one stage more. This stage is turbulent and troublesome; it is a short one, but you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way; it will carry you from earth to heaven, and there you shall find a great deal of cordial joy and comfort. King. I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbances can be. Dr. Juxon. You are exchanged from a temporal to an eternal crown, a good exchange. Then the king took off his cloak and his George, which he gave to Dr. Juxon, saying, "Remember." Some other small ceremonies were passed, after which the king stooping down laid his neck upon the block, and after a very little pause, stretching forth his hands, the executioner at one blow severed his head from his body. The king died with true magnanimity and Christian patience; his body was put in a coffin, covered with black velvet, and removed to his lodging chamber in Whitehall. At this scene were many sighs and weeping eyes, and divers strove to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood, as in the blood of a martyr. The following stanzas from a poem written two years after the death of Charles, and by a poet who was certainly not a royalist, show the impression made by the king's bearing at his execution. He nothing common did or mean But with his keener eye The axe's edge did try: Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite, But bow'd his comely head The extracts from the Eikon Basilike which follow show how the king, or a very close adherent, looked upon his actions. The first paragraphs give the king's explanation, though an untrue one, of his calling the Long Parliament in 1640. The remaining portions are addressed to his son, closing with a prayer for his enemies. 300. Two stanzas from Andrew Marvell, An Horatian Ode 301. Extracts from the Eikon Basilike The king's intentions in the parliament of 1640 This last Parliament I called, not more by others' advice and necessity of my Affaires, than by my own choice and inclination; who have alwaies thought the right way of Parliaments most safe for my Crown, as best pleasing to my People. And although I was not forgetful of those sparks which some mens distempers formerly studied to kindle in Parliaments, (which by forbearing to convene for some years I hoped to have extinguished ;) yet resolving with Myself to give all just satisfaction to modest and sober desires, and to redresse all publick Grievances in Church and State, I hoped (by my freedome and their moderation) to prevent all misunderstandings and miscarriages in this: In which as I feared affairs would meet with some Passion and Prejudice in other men, so I resolved they should finde least of them in Myself; not doubting but by the weight of Reason I should counterpoize the over-balancings of any Factions. ... No man was better pleased with the convening of this Parliament than Myself; who knowing best the Largenesse of my own Heart toward my Peoples' good and just contentment, pleased Myself most in that good and firm understanding which would hence grow between Me and my People. All Jealousies being laid aside, My own and my Children's Interests gave me many obligations to seek and preserve the Love and welfare of my Subjects; the onely temporal Blessing that is left to the ambition of just Monarchs, as their greatest Honor and Safety, next God's protection. I cared not to lessen Myself in some things of my wonted Prerogative, since I knew I could be no loser, if I might gain but a recompense in my Subjects Affections. I intended not onely to oblige my Friends, but mine Enemies also; exceeding even the desires of those that were factiously discontented, if they did but pretend to any modest and sober sense. The Odium and offences which some mens Rigor or Remisness in Church and State had contracted upon my Government, I resolved to have expiated by such Laws and regulations for the future, as might not only rectifie what was amiss in Practice, but supply what was defective in the Constitution, No man having a greater zeal to see Religion settled, and preserved in Truth, Unity, and Order, than Myself, whom it most concerns both in Piety and Policy; as knowing that, No flames of civil Dissentions are more dangerous than those which make Religious pretentions the grounds of Factions. I resolved to reform what I should by free and full advice in Parliament be convinced of to be amiss, and to grant whatever my Reason and Conscience told Me was fit to be desired. . . Son, if these Papers, with some others, wherein I have set The king's down the private reflections of my Conscience and my most appeal to his son, afterward impartial thoughts touching the chief passages which have Charles II been most remarkable or disputed in my late Troubles, come to Your hands, to whom they are chiefly design'd, they may be so far useful to You, as to state your Judgment aright in what hath passed; whereof a Pious is the best use can be made... In these two points, the preservation of established Religion and Laws, I may (without vanity) turn the reproach of my Sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honour of a kind of martyrdom as to the testimony of My own Conscience; the Troublers of my Kingdoms having nothing else to object against Me but this, That I prefer Religion and Laws establisht before those Alterations they propounded. And so indeed I do and ever shall, till I am convinced by better Arguments than what hitherto have been chiefly used towards Me, Tumults, Armies, and Prisons. ... But if you never see my face again, and God will have Me The king's buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and Obscurity (which devotion to the Anglican the perfecting some mens Designs requires), wherein few hearts church that love Me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me; I do require and entreat you as your Father and your King, that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England. I tell you I have tried it, and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world; not only in the Community as Christian |